Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it passed to Towne’s residuary legatee, John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915. Quite feasibly it is BP156, “all Italian paper none [i.e. no date, no number]”, sold to Squire Gallery in February 1935 for £14. By June 1935 it was on sale at the Fine Art Society (which often snapped up the Squire Gallery’s Merivale acquisitions), where on 2 August 1938 it was purchased for £25 by James Leslie Wright of Warwick (1862–1954), who bequeathed it to the current owner, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (P.399, 53), although under the terms of his bequest the drawing remained in the custody of his family. The museum’s records state that the drawing has a Merivale provenance.